Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects Inc.

Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects Inc.

Stanley SaitowitzNatoma Architects Inc.

Echo Village

LA's destinations are islands in the metropolitan sea. 1111 Sunset is a hilltop enclave encircled by boulevards and roads. It's twin contexts are the towers of downtown and the grids of bungalows clinging to the hills. These two morphologies are merged to create the topography of Sunset Village.

The hill is encrusted with a dense pueblo of houses which climb and extrude into stacked towers.

A grid of streets is incised through the pueblo, integrating the village hill with its surrounding neighbors. These canyons carve the village into eight parcels, and become the corridors for views.

The main cross axis of this grid is the Paseo which links Sunset Plaza and Alpine. Activities from the hotel on Sunset Blvd spill onto the Plaza. The Paseo is lined with commercial activities and intersects at its center with the main north/south Avenue. At the Alpine end, it becomes an amphitheater green, connecting to the neighborhood.

On either side parallel to the Avenue are two Walking Streets lined with village townhouses and filled with gardens. All homes have views out to the towers of downtown or the hills of bungalows through these canyons.

Townhouses, stepping down and scaled to the neighboring bungalows, line the base of the building on all sides.

The terraced roofscapes of Sunset Village are contours of a new ground of gardens and patios onto which the life of homes spill. Three common areas with pools and terraces are located on this landscape, one for the hotel, and two other for the residences.

Commerce wraps the intersection of Sunset Blvd and North Beaudry Ave, with the residential village climbing the hill behind. The intersection is reconfigured to connect the isolated triangle as an oasis at the bottom of the village.

Parking is buried in a terraced podium which mounts the hill, tracking the stacked houses above.